Index

The Technical Designer: Demystified

The
Technical Designer is an oft-heard term, but accounts for a surprisingly sizeable chunk
of the typical project lifecycle, andthis pillar is what I’ll be unraveling and
revealing in this collection of words. In short, the Technical Designer is
something of chameleon, or darwinian creature – they are those who can operate in and adapt to different environments and ultimately thrive. They must be able to mesh perfectly with the
engineering team and understand their unique language and odor, while simultaneously
interfacing with visual designersand their airy expressional movements.

The technical side of the moniker is pretty much exactly
what you might have in mind. This is the side where the Technical Designer has
to work inside the very same tool engineers use, and adhere to their workflow
and methods. This means working in tools like Visual Studio/Expression Blend or heaven
forbid xCode or Eclipse. However, the most
important part of the technical side is perhaps that they are the conduits
between the design and engineering – taking into account not only that the app
faithfully represents composites, but is also very conscious of performance. This includes, but is not limited to things like, making sure
animations run smooth, transitions are consistent, and living by the “no
interaction left uninteractive” rule, which I just made up. In addition to all of that, they maintain the concept of “beautiful code” where the app is aesthetically
pleasing and well organized even down to the code level is paramount to a
skilled Technical Designer. It also keeps the engineers happy and at bay.

The other side of the Technical Designer is unsurprisingly
the Design or Agency side. The side where they take things like crude composites,
embarrassingly self-recorded temporary sound effects, and flailing gesticulations and
manifest them into a real life, functioning interaction of the
application. It may seem easy, but when
you have to interpret “It should swoosh like pshhhhow, and then blam!” it
really isn’t. My favorite comments from creative leadership to turn into an
interaction are:

Make it pop more

Just add some more zing to it

I see
that it’s blue, but the animation doesn’t show
that it is

Luckily, the crafty Technical Designer has formed a handy artist-to-English
dictionary for comments like this, and over time has learned to understand this
foreign and ambiguous language thrown at them by clients and directors. The
agency side for the Technical Director is a little less tangible, and this is
why the Technical Designer is such a rare breed – they need to be able to read
between the lines and truly feel the experience and interaction they are
creating. Understanding the impact a certain animation will have, and develop
animation languages and expression. Anyone can animate a rectangle going across
the screen, but in the right hands, that rectangle’s movement has the potential
to bring true emotion to the action. The herald of the Technical Designer is
their ability to use simple embellishments to bring you to your knees and in
tears. Unless you’re sitting down, then you’ll just sit and cry.

Having read this far into the article, you now can
understand the intricacies and challenges of the Technical Designer. Each and
every day, they must have one foot firmly on each side of a very wide chasm - The cold, calculating technical side and the skylarking, doe-eyed agency side. The
Technical Designer is the mediator between them, finding a medium of beauty between form and function. Hopefully this helps demystify the enigma that
is the Technical Designer.